WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2076/97 by Claudio AZZOLINI to the Commission. Implementation of the Cites Convention
Date: 1997-06-11
Institutions: AZZOLINI, European Parliament
Subjects: consumer protection, dissemination of information, marketing restriction, protected species, protection of animal life, protection of plant life, public awareness campaign, sanction (EU), trade restriction, type of business

22. 1. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 21/139

Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission

(15 July 1997)

The setting-up of more than 700 biomedical research networks has enabled cooperation among research workers
to be initiated or boosted, the available resources to be pooled, duplication of effort and research to be avoided
and critical mass to be achieved in the data needed for the epidemiological studies, more particularly as regards
rare diseases or pathologies linked with hazards at work.

By way of an example: a project funded by the Community and coordinated by a British laboratory has enabled
the existence of a new variant of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease to be established via the exchange of information
among  various  European  centres.  This  result  is  essential  in  understanding  the  inter-species  transmission  of
prion-initiated neurodegenerative diseases and in drawing up a strategy for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

(98/C 21/260)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2076/97

by Claudio Azzolini (UPE) to the Commission

(11 June 1997)

Subject: Implementation of the Cites Convention

The  (cid:145)super-fines(cid:146)  provided  for  in  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  338/97 (1),  which  seeks  to  harmonize
implementation in the 15 Member States of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Flora and Fauna (Cites), come into force on 1 June 1997.

As far as coral is concerned, various distinctions must be made with a view to avoiding unlikely, but nevertheless
possible, problems.

The species to be protected, which appear in the aforementioned Cites list, belong to the class Anthozoa, with
particular regard to the Tubiporidae (organpipe corals), Antipatharia (black corals) and Madreporaria groups.
Given  that  all  the  types  of  coral  to  be  protected  are  of  madreporarian  structure,  they  cannot  be  made  into
necklaces  or  other  types  of  manufactured  goods  and  are  therefore  completely  different  from  the  Corallium
rubrum which is to be found in many parts of the Union.

The false information on the subject which has appeared in the weekly and daily press represents a serious threat
to direct and indirect jobs in the coral-working sector in areas such as Torre del Greco (Italy), where 6 000 people
are employed. Would the Commission not agree that, with a view to protecting both the large number of people
employed in this sector and, above all, individual members of the public who might be unjustly punished, it
should take steps to ensure that comprehensive supporting evidence is put forward with the utmost urgency, so as
to enable the serious and damaging misunderstanding caused by the above press reports to be cleared up?

(1)  OJ L 61, 3.3.1997, p. 1.

Answer given by Mme Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission

(27 June 1997)

The false information in the press on the subject of species of coral not covered by Regulation (EC) No 338/97
does not originate either from the Commission or from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) press campaign
currently co-financed by the Commission.

In  order  to  avoid  any  damage  to  the  interests  of  Member  States,  the  Commission  has  asked  the  WWF  to
co-ordinate the content of all communications released during the information campaign on the new Council
Regulation  with  the  authorities  of  the  signatory  countries  to  the  Convention  on  International  Trade  in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). During the committee meetings, the national authorities
were officially informed by the Commission on several occasions of the progress of the campaign and of the
necessity of co-operating with the WWF.

WWF Italy has duly collaborated with the Italian authorities in regulating communications released during the
information campaign. The communication released cannot give rise to confusion since it indicates that not all
types of coral are covered by the Regulation. It specifies that (cid:145)certain types of coral should not be gathered as
souvenirs(cid:146).